Cooperative Localization for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
(2009)

Self-localization of an underwater vehicle is particularly challenging due to the absence of Global Positioning System (GPS) reception or features at known positions that could otherwise have been used for position computation. Thus Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) applications typically require the pre-deployment of a set of beacons. This thesis examines the scenario in which the members of a group of AUVs exchange navigation information with one another so as to improve their individual position estimates. We describe how the underwater environment poses unique challenges to vehicle navigation not encountered in other environments in which robots operate and how cooperation can improve the performance of self-localization. As intra-vehicle communication is crucial to cooperation, we also address the constraints of the communication channel and the effect that these constraints have on the design of cooperation strategies. The classical approaches to underwater self-localization of a single vehicle, as well as more recently developed techniques are presented. We then examine how methods used for cooperating land-vehicles can be transferred to the underwater domain. An algorithm for distributed self-localization, which is designed to take the specific characteristics of the environment into account, is proposed. We also address how correlated position estimates of cooperating vehicles can lead to overconfidence in individual position estimates. Finally, key to any successful cooperative navigation strategy is the incorporation of the relative positioning between vehicles. The performance of localization algorithms with different geometries is analyzed and a distributed algorithm for the dynamic positioning of vehicles, which serve as dedicated navigation beacons for a fleet of AUVs, is proposed. Thesis Supervisor: John J. Leonard Title: Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of many friends and colleagues who made the last five years at MIT an exceptionally fulfilling experience. I would like to thank my advisor John Leonard who strongly supported me ever since our first email exchange in 2003. He guided me all the way through the application process, research, thesis and finding a post doc position. His broad range of research interests enabled me to find a thesis subject that exactly matched my interest. And I very much appreciated him allowing me to take a significant amount of time to pursue other projects as well as travel. I would also like to thank my other committee members: Henrik Schmidt for his continued support and great company during several research cruises, and Hanu Singh and Arjuna Balasuriya for their helpful suggestions during my thesis writing. Many thanks to David Battle who helped me through my first steps with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and was a great mate to have around. Many of the experiments presented in this thesis would not have been possible without the support of Andrew Patrikalakis. The results owe a lot to his countless hours of coding assistance and his efforts to ensure that the kayaks would be ready when needed. They were also made possible by Joe Curcio, the builder of the kayaks, and the support of Jacques Leedekerken and Kevin Cockrell. The last years would not have been the same without the many great people I met at MIT. Most important was Matt Walter who convinced me in August 2003 that MIT is not only an interesting place, but that it can be very friendly as well. Throughout the years we shared many great personal and academic experiences. I wish him all the best, wherever life may take him. Patrycja unfortunately left our lab, but made up for it by taking me on a very memorable trip across the country. I wish Alec, Emma, Albert, Tom, Olivier and Aisha all the best for their remaining time and life beyond. Iuliu was always a welcome distraction in the United States and abroad and a great help with all hardware questions. I was glad to join Carrick, Marty and David on a number of exciting research and conference trips, as well as their advisor Daniela Rus. In the last months I was also very fortunate to meet a new group of people. First, I am very thankful to Maurice for carrying on what I started I cannot imagine somebody better suited for it and also Been, Georgios, Hordur and Rob. I would also like to thank the many people of the SEA 2007 cruise, particularly the B watch and Julian, Jamie, Heather, Chris, Toby and Jane. One of the most exciting things during my time at MIT was that I was not only able to pursue my thesis topic but also two other projects. First, the flood warning project introduced me to Elizabeth Basha. We shared many joyful moments as well as blood, sweat and tears in the Central American wilderness. I hope that the end of my PhD only marks the beginning of that partnership. Second, the harbor porpoise tag project led by Stacy DeRuiter was a great design challenge. It also provided an opportunity to reach into other areas of ocean sciences by contributing to marine biology research. Her dedication along with the support from Mark Johnson, Peter Tyack and Tom Hurst ensured the project’s success. The exciting results and the process leading up to them rewarded me with a better experience at MIT than I could have ever hoped for. I would like to thank John Leonard for letting me take this scenic route. The path that led me to MIT would not have been possible without the support from people in the early stages of my engineering career who I would like to thank here: Raimund Eich for patiently answering my first electrical engineering questions; my best friends Jan Horn, Daniel Steffensky, Alexander Zimmer and Ulf Radenz for helping me through my university time in Germany; and John Peatman, Ludger Becks and Uwe Zimmer for their academic guidance. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their continued support and especially Melissa Pitotti for her encouragement not only to start the work at this institution but also to finish it when the time had come. This work was funded by Office of Naval Research grants N00014-97-1-0202, N00014-05-1-0255, N00014-02-C-0210, N00014-07-1-1102 and the ASAP MURI program led by Naomi Leonard of Princeton University. “One degree is not a large distance. On a compass it is scarcely the thickness of a fingernail. But in certain conditions, one degree can be a very large distance. Enough to unmake a man.” The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, c © 3D Films, Australia 2005 Meinen Eltern & meinem Bruder